WHERE IS THE RECORD OF THE CHANGE?
IN a recent sermon by the Rev. O. B. Chester, of Savannah, Ga., that gentleman is quoted as saying: The seventh day was observed by the Jews in recognition of the creation, when the Lord rested on the last day. Sunday, the first day, is observed by us in recognition of the Resurrection of Christ. It was changed before the ascension of our Lord, by the disciples, and the change was indorsed by Christ. The Jews were required to rest on the seventh day. It was a day of absolute inaction. There were no commandments to go to church or to do anything but cease from all forms of labor. But the day is not properly observed by inaction, but rather by holy action. It is right to be busy in doing good on the Sabbath day. Worship the Lord, visit the sick. You can best know yourselves the proper things to do on the Sabbath. They must be those things which will in no way interfere with the worship of the Lord. We do not notice this because it contains anything new. It is an example of what is continually set before Christian people as Bible truth. It is, however, a mixture of truth with most perversive error. It is true that the Jews observed the Sabbath in recognition of the creation; and so all should recognize it, because all are as much obligated to God for creation and its blessings as were the Jews. "Is God the God of Jews only? is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yea, of Gentiles also." Rom. 3:29. And so Jesus Himself declares that "the Sabbath was made for man," not the Jew man, but man generically—all mankind. Mark 2:27. But where is there a single scintilla of evidence that any change of the Sabbath took place before the ascension? or that the disciples ever intimated such a thing? or that they ever at that time observed Sunday as a holy day? or that Christ indorsed any change of day? It is easy to state such things, but where is the evidence? Men's words compared with God's are as the chaff to the wheat. Jesus says: "Every plant, which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up." Matt. 15:13. Sunday is not of God's planting. Not only was the Sabbath not a day of inaction, but it was a day when the general temple service was doubled, when the Jews went to the temple and the synagogue to worship, where the Scriptures were read. See Num. 28:9-11; Luke 4:16, 17; Acts 15:21; Ps. 96:8. See the whole of Psalm 92, "a Song for the Sabbath Day." Jesus also, the Lord of the Sabbath, taught how the Sabbath should be observed in doing good, and taught that it was not contrary to the Sabbath commandment so to do: "It is lawful [according to law] to do good on the Sabbath day." Matt. 12:12. O brethren in the ministry, why not teach the Word? even tho the good of past ages have supposed a counterfeit genuine, why still pass it as the currency of Heaven? An error never becomes truth. Do you not see that you make of none effect all of God's law in the minds of the people by declaring it in part of no obligation? How much has this partiality in the law to do with the overwhelming wave of lawlessness? You can not force God to your terms; why not come to His?